Matt Johnson, one half of the popular indie-pop duo Matt and Kim, talks to Local Spins about the band’s 14-year career, returning to the road after Kim’s onstage injury, and the ‘slow burn’ success of “Daylight.”
Matt and Kim return to Michigan Tuesday night with a show at 20 Monroe Live. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
With the whimsical pluck of an acoustic piano and the playfulness of colorful drums, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino captivated the world by song in 2009.
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Perhaps it’s the electric energy that “Daylight” brims with. Or the wobbly sincerity spinning off Johnson’s voice. Or it could be the exhilarating lyrical imagery of adolescence that is so casually captured. Whatever the reason, if there even is one that can be pinpointed, Matt and Kim’s breakthrough song resonated with an entire generation nearly 10 years ago. It pulsed through iPod Nanos, played obsessively on alternative radio stations, and was downloaded from more than a few questionable file-sharing sites of the day.
“It’s just so funny because it was recorded in my childhood bedroom in Vermont, where I had all my skateboarding posters still hung all over the wall. I was honestly like googling ‘how do you record music’ because I recorded the whole album myself… and now we have a platinum record for it,” Johnson says on the phone from a tour stop in Louisville.
“It’s wild you know, it shows the strength of the song can exist above anything else. I think it plays more on the radio now than when it was made. It’s been this nice slow burn that people just keep connecting to and discovering. I think that song came out well, but it was also the right place and right time… and whatever it was about that super simple piano line.”
The Brooklyn-based duo performs in Grand Rapids at 20 Monroe Live on Tuesday with opener Michael Christmas as part of their summer/fall tour. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. General admission tickets are available for $28. More details here.
With the catalyst of “Daylight,” and the wildly successful accompanying album, “Grand,” the duo became quickly known for their eccentric, high-energy shows, taking their upbeat indie-pop performance to the likes of Bonnaroo, Coachella and Firefly Music Festival.
Over the years, the band has also become well-acquainted with Michigan, having toured through Detroit and Kalamazoo and having headlined at Electric Forest and Mo Pop Festival.
“There is an excitement in Michigan. And sometimes you get that outside of the big, major cities. A lot of times in the smaller cities, you get excited for the show far in advance because not every single show comes through,” Johnson says.
“When we show up in those towns, sometimes those shows are awesome and you can feel the energy all the way from the opener. So I love that, and I hope Grand Rapids has that as well.”
FROM THE ROAD … TO RECOVERY
Kim Schifino performing at Mo Pop Festival in 2016. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
This tour marks the first time the band has hit the road since Schifino suffered a torn ACL from an onstage fall at Vaiven Festival in Mexico in March 2017. Following the widely publicized injury and subsequent surgery, Schifino’s nine-month recovery put the band on pause, prompting a year off from touring.
“It was certainly a change of pace. I’ve been touring in this band my entire adult life and to have a year where we didn’t tour was very bizarre,” Johnson recalls. “I know plenty of people have dealt with similar injuries and surgeries but I really didn’t grasp the magnitude of how difficult the recovery process is, especially for Kim. She came at it like an athlete, like it was her job. She’s such an active person, it really took a mental toll for her to have to slow down.”
Eventually, the road to recovery led to getting back on the road as a band, as well as new music. The duo released its sixth studio album “Almost Everyday,” earlier this year, which was greatly influenced by the injury and year off the road, and is described as the band’s “most personal, emotionally-charged release yet.”
“We appreciated it more than ever when we got back to doing shows,” Johnson says. “We kind of got a vision of what it would be like if we didn’t get to do it anymore.”
Since 2004: Matt Johnson has been exciting crowds with Kim Schifino. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Despite the previous year’s setbacks, 2018 has found Johnson and Schifino eagerly jumping back into their craft, bringing along the same endearing energy they’ve toted since their start in 2004 (well before “Daylight” was proudly welcomed into the world).
“It’s crazy it’s been 14 years. It doesn’t feel like it. I was actually talking to a band about this outside the venue the other night: I find that however tired you might be on tour, or if you have a cold, or you’re hungover, or whatever, if I go out on stage and the audience is excited, I’m immediately snapped out of it,” Johnson says.
“Luckily we have this reputation that precedes us, of being an exciting live band, and (having) an exciting show and we have a very reactive and loud, dancing type of audience. To feed off the energy of the audience, that just gets me super excited.”
Copyright 2018, Spins on Music LLC
